Ledisi Anibade Young (pronounced /ˈlɛdɨsiː/ born July 9, 1978) is an American recording artist, singer-songwriter, record producer, CEO and actress. Her first name means “to bring forth” or “to come here” in Yoruba.[1] Ledisi is known for her jazz influenced vocals. In 1995, Ledisi formed the group known as Anibade. After unsuccessfully trying to get the group signed to a major label, she formed LeSun Records with Sundra Manning. Along with her group Anibade, Ledisi released an album entitled Take Time. The album gained major airplay from local radio stations.[citation needed]

In 2000, Ledisi released her first album, entitled Soulsinger: The Revival. Ledisi and her group toured in 2001, performing various shows.[1] In 2002, Ledisi released her second album, Feeling Orange but Sometimes Blue. The album won her an award for “Outstanding Jazz Album” at the California Music Awards.

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About SouthernGirl2

A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles.
Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures.
A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.

51 Responses to Tuesday Open Thread

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will host a White House conference next week on preventing bullying.

The White House says the March 10 conference will bring together students, parents and educators to discuss ways to end bullying and make schools safer for students.

Aides say this is a personal issue for both the president and his wife, Michelle Obama. The president taped a message for the “It Gets Better Campaign” last fall following the deaths of several young people who were bullied for being gay.

Obama said at the time that it was important to dispel the notion that bullying is an inevitable part of growing up.

The National Education Association (NEA) will host its 14th annual Read Across America Day tomorrow, March 2, at the Library of Congress. First Lady Michelle Obama will read the Dr. Seuss children’s classic “Green Eggs and Ham” alongside U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and NEA President Dennis Van Roekel. Hundreds of local school children will attend.

The event was created in 1998 in order to get children excited about reading. On the
NEA’s website, the group notes that the event also “provides NEA members, parents, caregivers, and children the resources and activities they need to keep reading on the calendar 365 days a year.”

The NEA decided to host the event on Dr. Seuss’s birthday, and this year will mark his 107th.

There will also be appearances made by actress Jessica Alba, TV host Padma Lakshmi, and Super Bowl Champion Donald Driver.

Readers can log on to make reading pledges at the NEA’s website. Currently, California is by far in the lead with 342 pledges. The closest state behind is New York, with 200 pledges.

Don Lemon (born March 1, 1966?)[1][dead link] is a reporter for CNN and news anchor on the prime-time weekend version of CNN Newsroom, based in Atlanta.[2]

[edit] Life and careerLemon received a degree[ambiguous] in broadcast journalism from Brooklyn College and also attended Louisiana State University.[2]

While still in college, he became a news assistant at WNYW (TV 5 in New York City). He has also been a reporter and weekend anchor for WCAU (TV 10 in Philadelphia); anchor and investigative reporter for KTVI (TV 2 in St. Louis); and anchor for WBRC (TV 6 in Birmingham, Alabama).[2]

He became a reporter for NBC News’ New York City operations, including working as a correspondent for Today and NBC Nightly News and an anchor on Weekend Today and MSNBC. In August 2003 he began at NBC O&O station WMAQ-TV (5 in Chicago), and was a reporter and the 5 p.m. local news co-anchor.[2]

Lemon joined CNN in September 2006.[2]

During an on-air interview with members of Bishop Eddie Long’s congregation on September 25, 2010, Lemon said that he was a victim of sex abuse as a child, and that it wasn’t until he was thirty that he told his mother about it.[3]

To Rude: May God Bless you and your family. Condolences to you on the passing of your mother, Rude.

3 Chics sending you and your family prayers.

2/28/2011
Taking a Few Days of Comp Time:
My mother passed away this past weekend after battling t-cell lymphoma. So this blog will be dark for the next few days as I head back south to be with family.

I thank you in advance for watering the plants, and, while the bar is always open, leave a little whiskey for when I get back.

The House on Tuesday approved a stopgap measure that would keep the federal government funded through March 18 and cut $4 billion in spending by targeting programs that President Obama has already marked for elimination.

The measure, which passed the House on a 335 to 91 vote, now goes to the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday that the measure is likely to be approved in the Senate within the next 48 hours. If Congress does not pass a funding resolution by Friday, the federal government would be forced to shut down, but the apparent agreement between the two chambers seems likely to avert that possibility in the short-term.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says President Barack Obama’s childhood in Kenya shaped his world view — despite the fact that Obama did not visit Kenya until he was in his 20s.

The potential Republican presidential candidate told New York radio station WOR that Obama was raised in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather.

Actually, Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961 to a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya whom he would barely know. He spent his youth in Hawaii and Indonesia and did not visit his father’s homeland until 1987, well after his father’s death.

Huckabee has criticized those who suggest Obama is Kenyan and thus ineligible to be president. Recently he said that birthers are wasting their “time and energy” by mounting attacks on the citizenship issue during an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

A Huckabee adviser did not have an immediate explanation for Huckabee’s comments to WOR.

These cracka ass crackas don’t know any other way to win fairly. They resort to lies, distortion, and fear-mongering. It’s pathetic really, that they have no conscience, no regard or morals. And they are only preying on teh ignorant, white low information voters’ fears and bigotry.

By SARAH EDDINGTON, Associated Press Sarah Eddington, Associated Press – Tue Mar 1, 12:07 am ET
GREENBRIER, Ark. – The central Arkansas town of Greenbrier has been plagued for months by hundreds of small earthquakes, and after being woken up by the largest quake to hit the state in 35 years, residents said Monday they’re unsettled by the increasing severity and lack of warning.

[Related: What is an earthquake swarm?]

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the quake at 11 p.m. Sunday, centered just northeast of Greenbrier, about 40 miles north of Little Rock. It was the largest of more than 800 quakes to strike the area since September in what is now being called the Guy-Greenbrier earthquake swarm.

The activity has garnered national attention and researchers are studying whether there’s a possible connection to the region’s natural gas drilling industry. The earthquake activity varies each week, though as many as nearly two dozen small quakes have occurred in a day.

“You don’t know what to expect. It’s unnerving,” said Corinne Tarkington, an employee at a local flower and gift shop. “I woke up last night to the sound of my house shaking.”

What woke Tarkington was a magnitude 4.7 earthquake that was also felt in Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee and Mississippi. No injuries or major damage have been reported, but the escalation in the severity of quakes in and around the small north-central Arkansas town has many residents on edge. Some said they’re seeing gradual damage to their homes, such as cracks in walls and driveways.

A boisterous first meeting of the House’s Tea Party Caucus on Monday night exposed two potential rifts — one between its members and state-level Tea Party activists, who have no appetite for compromise, and another between its members and Republican Party leaders, who will soon be asking them to do just that.

Tea Party leaders from Virginia, Florida and Pennsylvania hotly demanded that the members of the caucus not settle for anything less than defunding the Obama health care law, even on a very short-term basis, attendees told the Huffington Post. They also scoffed at the new Republican target of $61 billion in budget cuts from the rest of this fiscal year, calling it insufficient. And they made it clear Republicans who don’t stand firm will face primary opponents in 2012.

House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) fired Kurt Bardella, one of Capitol Hill’s top press secretaries, after he provided e-mailed correspondence with other journalists to New York Times reporter Mark Leibovich.

Issa, in a statement Tuesday afternoon, said that the “information shared with Mark Leibovich appears to have been limited to Kurt’s own correspondence with reporters,” claiming that the internal workings of the committee — which include sensitive documents — had not been jeopardized.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/50412.html#ixzz1FNkBeg6L

The robed ones have deliberated over cocaine at least half a dozen times in recent years, taking up the drug in some form in each of the past four years. On Monday, the justices took another hit – and this one was particularly mind-blowing.

For one thing, the law they were interpreting – the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine – was changed by Congress last year, making the argument largely inconsequential.

For another, the argument hinged on chemical properties of cocaine derivatives – a technical discussion for which law school did not quite prepare the justices.

“Could you grind it up so that it’s not rock-like anymore, so it’s like a powder, and smoke it after it’s in that form?” inquired Justice Samuel Alito.

“Can you get cocaine into a rock form without using a base?” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wanted to know.

Justice Anthony Kennedy had a question about the age and sun exposure of the coca leaf. Justice Elena Kagan invoked Richard Pryor’s freebasing accident. Alito, who showed off by reciting the chemical formula for cocaine – C17H21NO4 – sought information on how many Americans smoke coca paste.

Justice Stephen Breyer had even less refined cocaine knowledge. “People sniff it often, I guess, if it’s a salt, and that’s bad,” he said. “And then there’s a kind that’s worse. That’s freebase or crack.”

From the looks of them, the lawyers – Andrew Pincus, son of The Washington Post’s Walter Pincus, and Justice Department lawyer Nicole Saharsky – had as little firsthand experience with the substance as their questioners. But they shared what they could about rock and snow.

Breyer told Saharsky it was “very interesting” that she described coca paste as “being a yellow substance that came directly from grinding up leaves, something like that.”

“The paste doesn’t have to be yellow, just like crack doesn’t have to be white or off-white,” Saharsky explained. “There was evidence that a few years ago there were folks in Ohio that were coloring crack green for St. Patrick’s Day.” The justices smiled at this clever marketing technique. Saharsky further explained that the drug has been described as “a brown, soft, mushy, wet substance” and a “wet, gooey, cream-colored substance.”

“It can also be dried and smoked,” Saharsky added. “It has been dried in South America, so it’s not always wet.”

Symptoms of a cocaine high include talkativeness, hyperactivity and a feeling of superiority, often followed by lethargy during the crash. By coincidence, these were the same traits on display in the chamber. Talkativeness? Sotomayor. Hyperactivity? Breyer. Lethargy? Clarence Thomas. Feeling of superiority? Antonin Scalia.

“You’re urging upon us a definition that neither is the definition of crack nor is the chemical definition of cocaine base,” Scalia snorted. “It’s neither fish nor fowl.”

Pincus provided a culinary response, saying the “question that we’re debating is whether the use of baking soda is essential.”

“It’s essential to crack,” Scalia informed counsel. But even the all-knowing Scalia became muddled as he inhaled deeply of the drug discussion.

Saharsky lectured her slow pupils. “Optical isomers are nonsuperimposable mirror images, like right- and left-handed versions of the same molecule,” she informed them, and “geometric isomers . . . are based on spatial arrangements where a certain part of the molecule is pushed out or pushed up axially or equatorially.”

“They’re all very exotic,” Justice Ruth Ginsburg observed.

So the justices tried to simplify. “Cocaine base means the same exact same thing as cocaine, because cocaine is a base,” Kagan thought aloud. “It’s like referring to an apple by saying ‘apple fruit’ or referring to a poodle by saying ‘poodle dog.’ ”

Breyer later declared that “I’m not going to repeat the same stupid joke – poodles and fruits.” Kagan didn’t join in the laughter.

As an alternative metaphor, Breyer said that the drug law reads to him like a riddle: “Who’s your father’s son who’s not your brother?”

President Obama called House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday, White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters.

The purpose of the call was to “discuss the progress being made on the negotiations for a continuing resolution,” Carney said, adding that the conversation lasted 10 to 12 minutes.

Before calling on reporters to take questions, Carney added, “And you will ask, but I will not divulge, any more information about the phone call.”

Pressed about Boehner’s suggestion earlier that day that Obama had been too slow in initiating a conversation about extending the deadline for the CR set to expire on Friday, Carney reiterated that Obama and Boehner had “a productive and useful conversation” and that Obama remains “committed to cutting spending.”

“We have made clear that we could accept even over a relatively short period of time 8 billion dollars in cuts that we could agree on,” Carney said, citing this as a demonstration of Obama’s commitment to “tighten our belts.”

Washington, D.C., March 1, 2011 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced insider trading charges against a Westport, Conn.-based business consultant who has served on the boards of directors at Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble for illegally tipping Galleon Management founder and hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam with inside information about the quarterly earnings at both firms as well as an impending $5 billion investment by Berkshire Hathaway in Goldman.

The SEC’s Division of Enforcement alleges that Rajat K. Gupta, a friend and business associate of Rajaratnam, provided him with confidential information learned during board calls and in other aspects of his duties on the Goldman and P&G boards. Rajaratnam used the inside information to trade on behalf of some of Galleon’s hedge funds, or shared the information with others at his firm who then traded on it ahead of public announcements by the firms. The insider trading by Rajaratnam and others generated more than $18 million in illicit profits and loss avoidance. Gupta was at the time a direct or indirect investor in at least some of these Galleon hedge funds, and had other potentially lucrative business interests with Rajaratnam.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Senate is expected on Thursday to consider a revised version of a bill to end collective bargaining for public-sector workers, and union members gathering outside the Statehouse here Tuesday morning said they were bracing for the worst.

“This is going to get passed and people will sit back and say, ‘What happened?’ ” said Mark Horton, a retired firefighter who is treasurer of the Ohio Association of Professional Firefighters. “Once it’s done, there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle.”

Unlike similar legislation in Wisconsin, which exempts police officers and firefighters, the Ohio bill includes them — and is controversial for that reason.

But Republicans say the legislation that seeks to eliminate long-held union prerogatives are part of broader austerity measures intended to reduce crippling budget deficits, of which public employee pensions have played a growing role.

I’m right here. I’ve been kinda busy. They had a huge rally in Columbus today. All those dumb white folks who voted for this clown were out in full force trying to save their pensions and collective bargaining rights.

No surprises here. CNN along with the rest of the meathead media blackout a 30,000 PBO OHIO supporter rally last year.

**Breaking** CNN proves Not all Protest Movements are Reported Equally
By Joan Ruaiz, on February 28th, 2011

So here we all were, waiting for massive news coverage on the protests that took place around the country in support of Wisconsin union members. I imagine some were convinced that since the corporate media had breathlessly covered any and every gathering held by the Tea Party for the past two years, that when Wisconsin union protesters showed up in large numbers for days, joined by all-American firefighters and police, that this spontaneous people-powered movement would get the same kind of play.

Turns out… only in our wildest dreams!

Not only were the protests barely covered, but the two-year anniversary of the Tea Party was covered at length by CNN. Of course, the Wisconsin protests were allotted a few subdued minutes of reportage here and there, wherein the so-called “liberal media” made sure to provide both sides of the argument, tilted favorably toward the anti-union message.

3M’s CEO says Obama is driving firms away
George Buckley said that President Obama’s “anti-business” attitudes could have manufacturers shifting production out of the U.S. to Canada or Mexico.
By SUSAN FEYDER, Star Tribune
Last update: March 1, 2011 – 6:15 AM
By SUSAN FEYDER1, Star Tribune

Last update: March 1, 2011 – 6:15 AM

3M Co. CEO George Buckley said in an
interview with the Financial Times that
President Obama’s “anti-business” attitudes
could have manufacturers shifting
production out of the U.S. to Canada or
Mexico.

“We know what his instincts are — they are
Robin Hood-esque,” he told the newspaper.

Buckley said companies could shift
operations out of the U.S. as a result.

About two-thirds of the Maplewood giant’s
$26.7 billion in sales last year came from
outside the U.S. In its most recent annual
report, the company said it has 76
manufacturing operations in 28 states a

Tue Mar 1, 9:59 am ET
Republican cuts would cost 700,000 jobs: Report
A new report by a leading economic forecaster finds that budget cuts passed by the House of Representatives would cost 700,000 jobs over the next two years if enacted.

“The House Republicans’ proposal would reduce 2011 real GDP growth by 0.5% and 2012 growth by 0.2%,” according to the study, by Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi. “This would mean some 400,000 fewer jobs created by the end of 2011 and 700,000 fewer jobs by the end of 2012.”

Zandi is no left-wing ideologue. He was on the economic team for Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, and has advised members of both political parties. His findings point in the same direction as those of an even more pessimistic Goldman Sachs report, leaked last week, which concluded that the proposed cuts would reduce second- and third-quarter growth in 2010 by 1.5 to 2 percentage points.

Although the economy has been growing of late, it’s not adding jobs fast enough to start significantly bringing down the unemployment rate, which stands at 9 percent. Writes Zandi: “Imposing additional government spending cuts before this has happened, as House Republicans want, would be taking an unnecessary chance with the recovery.”

America already faces a jobs crisis, having lost around 8 million jobs since the start of the recession in late 2007.

Zandi argues that the government does need to cut spending–but that it should wait to do so until unemployment has come down further. “Significant government spending restraint is vital,” he writes, “but given the economy’s halting recovery, it would be counterproductive for that restraint to begin until the U.S. is creating enough jobs to lower the unemployment rate.”

The House proposal cuts spending by around $60 billion from 2010 levels. The Senate and the Obama administration will weigh in before any cuts become law.

New York Times opinion columnist Frank Rich is leaving the newspaper after 31 years to join New York Magazine.

“Frank Rich is a giant—a powerhouse critic of politics and culture, a rigorous thinker, a glorious stylist, a skeptic and optimist at the same time. There is just no one like him in American journalism,” New York Magazine editor Adam Moss said in a statement. “He is also a friend. I have had the privilege to work with him for almost 25 years. Since the day I came to New York, I have hoped I could persuade him to join us here. I’m ecstatic that he will now be bringing his wisdom to our growing audience. This is a very big day for New York.”

According to the announcement, Rich will serve as an “essayist for the magazine, writing monthly on politics and culture, and serve as an editor-at-large, editing a special monthly section anchored by his essay” as well as a commentator on nymag.com.

Democrats call for an investigation of law firm, 3 tech companies
By Dan Eggen
Monday, February 28, 2011; 10:26 PM

A group of House Democrats is calling on Republican leaders to investigate a prominent Washington law firm and three federal technology contractors, who have been shown in hacked e-mails discussing a “disinformation campaign” against foes of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

In a letter to be released Tuesday, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) and more than a dozen other lawmakers wrote that the e-mails appear “to reveal a conspiracy to use subversive techniques to target Chamber critics,” including “possible illegal actions against citizens engaged in free speech.”

The lawmakers say it is “deeply troubling” that “tactics developed for use against terrorists may have been unleashed against American citizens.”

The call for a congressional probe marks the latest development in the controversy over tens of thousands of e-mails stolen from HBGary Federal, whose computer system was attacked in early February by members of a loose collective of unidentified hackers known as Anonymous.

The e-mails, which are widely available on file-sharing sites, show HBGary Federal, Berico Technologies and Palantir Technologies teaming up with a sales pitch to undermine chamber opponents.

PARIS — John Galliano, the chief designer for Christian Dior, faced fresh accusations on Monday of anti-Semitism after a video surfaced of Mr. Galliano appearing to deliver a tirade in a Paris bar.

Mr. Galliano, 50, arrived Monday at a police station in Paris to answer accusations by a French couple that he had verbally abused them last week at the bar, La Perle, in the Marais district of the city. He was suspended Friday from Dior after the episode was reported.

The video, posted on the Web site of the British tabloid The Sun, appears to show a separate incident at the same bar. In it, Mr. Galliano appears to taunt other patrons, declaring in a slurred voice that “people like you would be dead,” and that “your mothers, your forefathers” would all be “gassed.” He added, “I love Hitler.” It was unclear when the video was recorded.

Majority in Poll Back Employees in Public Sector UnionsBy MICHAEL COOPER and MEGAN THEE-BRENAN
Published: February 28, 2011

As labor battles erupt in state capitals around the nation, a majority of Americans say they oppose efforts to weaken the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions and are also against cutting the pay or benefits of public workers to reduce state budget deficits, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Labor unions are not exactly popular, though: A third of those surveyed viewed them favorably, a quarter viewed them unfavorably, and the rest said they were either undecided or had not heard enough about them. But the nationwide poll found that embattled public employee unions have the support of most Americans — and most independents — as they fight the efforts of newly elected Republican governors in Wisconsin and Ohio to weaken their bargaining powers, and the attempts of governors from both parties to cut their pay or benefits.

For all their bluster about making Barack Obama a one-term president, Republicans are assembling what looks like a remarkably weak field of candidates for the 2012 election – an odd assortment of the uninspiring and the unelectable.

In part, this reflects a healthy respect for Obama’s formidable political skills. If Obama is likely to win anyway, some contenders reason, why spend all the time and effort of a campaign just to end up delivering a concession speech? Why not wait until 2016, when prospects might look brighter?

Still, it’s not yet clear what the political and economic landscape will look like next year. The recovery could stall, unemployment could remain unacceptably high, and recent elections prove that the electorate is nothing if not volatile. You’d think that a Republican with credentials and star power could give Obama a run for his money.

The GOP has nobody who can offer any FORWARD thinking ideas, NO FORWARD think VISION for America.

It’s more of the same, smaller government, social wedge issues-abortion, gay marriage, (WTF is this if it isn’t socialism, trying to dictate women’s choices and whom folks should love and marry), tax cuts for the RICH!

NO plans for jobs, economic growth, infrastructure, technology, science, math, the things that will advance our people and our country. In other words, NOTHING for anyone who is not already filithy RICH!

Right now, unless they have cloned a PBO-wannabee and groomed him as a RETHUG, PBO has 2012 on LOCKDOWN!

Black Girls Rock!

Flickr Photos

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AFRO PUFFS

Most Adorable Shoe Stealer

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Fatherhood

Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.